NaNoWriMo: Week 1 Update

Ok, so you've seen the samples here and here of how I'm using the Tarot deck as a writing prompt and you've seen here how the deck originated. So how is all of that translating into word count? Very slowly it turns out.

However that is more due to time constraints than anything else. During NaNo there is very little time for planning, research and adjustments. You really need to be flexible and be able to run with an idea. I've been especially thrilled with the progress so far. I feel like having a cohesive idea of a beginning, middle and end help. Having certain historical points I need to cover helped. But the use of the cards as a writing prompt generator has allowed me to add a bit more flavor and draw upon the characters' personalities without chaining them to the plot. In short, they feel much more human.

So how do I feel about the Tarot? It's a fun game, it's a great writing prompt. However, after week one, I am still maintaining it's mostly a tool for exploring the psyche in non confrontational manner and a ton of confirmation bias. Will the next few weeks change my mind? Who knows.

NaNoWriMo Day 2: Mallory's Reading

Mallory's Reading (Cross Format)

Card #1: (Self) 
Six of Cups
Happy memories play a part in Mallory's story today.

Card #2: (Situation) 
Seven of Pentacles
With this card we see Mallory appraising results of her efforts. Given she is revolving around memories today, we should see her starting to make sense of them.

Card #3: (Fears/Weaknesses) 
Queen of Pentacles
This queen is someone who cultivates the necessities of the physical world. Mallory is lacking much of her connection to this world at the beginning of this chapter.

Card #4: (Strengths) 
King of Swords
Mallory will find strength in someone who is driven by ideas, someone who forces her to look around her and pull herself together.

Card #5: (Past Influences) 
Ace of Cups
We have a beginning here. An opportunity for Mallory to experience personal and emotional growth.

Card #6: (Outcome) 
III - The Empress
This card signifies an abundance of creation. This is a big indicator for Mallory as she's really just being introduced in this chapter and she is a very blank slate due to her mental state. This is our Theme Card for the day.

Today's Writing Goals

Today, I'm bringing in Mallory. She's a mess. Literally. Mallory is chaos and confusion, but there is a method to her madness. The challenge is writing her in a frayed mental state, but not crazy.

The Horror...  er, I mean... Aftermath

OK, so today was a bloodbath. I'm behind a few hundred words, but I'm physically and mentally exhausted even after a full can of Monster. I'm not worried today since 300 odd words is barely a deficit at all. Those can easily be made up during the week when things calm down.

My NaNoWriMo Experiment - The Tarot and the Lies They Tell

My novel for NaNoWriMo 2014 is titled Lies the Cards Tell. It's a typical YA fantasy novel, but it's something more than that. Throughout the month of November I'm using the Tarot as a writing prompt to push the direction of the story and help me through the enevitable writer's block that creeps in when you desperately need to hit that word target on a tight 50,000 words in 30 days deadline.

The novel itself revolves around a Tarot them. It explores every aspect of the cards and how they are and were used in various cultures. Despite the modern American stereotype of the TV witch throwing down the cards on the table and foretelling some ominous future, there is more to the Tarot. The cards have a long and rich history dating back centuries into the homes and leisure time of the Italian Renaissance nobility. 

If you're interesting in my writing process or the history of the Tarot. Follow along here as well as on my Twitter.

October Rush: Prepping for NaNoWriMo

For most people the countdown to October 31st is a rush to put the final preparations in place for the ultimate Halloween costume. Those of us in the writing community are probably looking for a few final accessories as well. But we aren't going out into the darkness of the Halloween witching hour to return with stockpiles of candy. Instead, we crave words! We don crazy costumes and gather in homes, public places and across the internet waiting for the clock to strike midnight and roll over to the precious wee hours of November 1st.

It's a Bizarro world version of New Years Eve. We've spent October making promises to write 1,667 words every day. We've dressed up our characters in the finest profile sheets listing everything from hair color to life goals and ambitions. The forums are picking up with our anxious questions and crazed playlist comparisons. The caffeine delivery method of choice is stashed away in a safe place. We've thought of everything. Now we wait and fidget with those last few details.

It's going to be a long and crazy November. And I'm very excited to be participating. If you've never done a NaNoWriMo before, I urge you to rush on over to NaNoWriMo.org and sign up. Find a local group in your area and jump into the insanity. Turn this November into a month long Halloween full of fascinating imaginary people and worlds, exploration of the language you take for granted and exciting new friends.

Don't be a label. Be an idea!

If I asked "who are you," what would you say? It's likely you would come up with a list of descriptive labels. I'm an artist. I'm a writer. I'm a parent. I'm in college. I like blue. But is that all you are? Are you limiting yourself with those labels?

We all have favorites. I love art. I love Monet's impressionist work. If you asked me about art I'm probably going to tell you all about impressionism. At some point in that conversation I'm also quite likely to switch to Dali and surrealism. Because, hey, I like those too. That really doesn't mean I like Monet or impressionists any less. It just means there are many great artists and styles out there that don't fit into one neat label for me to say I like.

So I could say I like art. But then that doesn't fit because I like to read. I like to walk and observe nature. I like photography. I love history. If you start talking to me about philosophy and the universe, I will tell you just as much or more about that than I would about Claude Monet and his works. You see I'm not a label. I'm a tangled ball of ideas swirling around and eventually landing on the one that fits the current situation best. That's what existing as a human is all about.

Could you imagine if no new ideas were presented? What if nothing changed? Sure we're comfortable now and we can say "if things stopped changing right now I could live comfortably." But to take that idea and apply it to this single fixed point in time is silly. We don't exist in a single fixed point in time. We're traveling through it. You would just as easily be stuck saying what if humanity had stopped evolving in the 1300s? Could I live in that society forever?

To be honest I can't think of one point in the past, present or even the future where I think we will be "good enough." Every answer we find will open up new questions and that's okay because we as humans are incredibly adaptable. We are the creators of ideas. And unlike the confining boxes of labels, ideas aren't fixed points. They spread and grow and build on top of each other throughout all of time. We couldn't have the ideas and innovation we have now without someone's crazy idea from the past. And the ideas we are presenting now will spur new innovations in the future.

So the next time you have to introduce yourself, ignore all those labels are swirling around your head. Think about all the crazy ideas you have and let them out of their dusty box. You are the illumination of ideas that will innovate the future. Embrace that.

Sketch Daily: Dr. Seuss

Today's Sketch Daily theme is Dr. Seuss. He was a huge inspiration to me growing up. What kid isn't inspired by his whimsical creations? I love the message that he sends to kids that you aren't a miniature adult and that play is okay. We don't send that message near enough. Even as adults sometimes we need to be reassured that imagination and creativity aren't things best left behind when childhood ends. So get out there and go make something whimsical today!

Why authors should draw. (Even if you're terrible.)

As authors we hear the the merits of "write every day" and "just keep writing" shouted from every virtual rooftop. Advice that sticks around that long exists because it is true. We tell young writers to not worry about their mistakes. A draft is supposed to be terrible. We give them advice on fundamentals to improve their work and do as much as we can to dissuade the idea that every author starts out writing Nobel Prize literature. How many authors are English or Lit Majors? So why then do many writers shy away from sketching?

I have met many people in my life that marvel at anyone with a creative streak in them, especially authors. They look at us as though we are about to break out a vial of faerie dust when we sit down to work.  They don't see the years we spend slogging through the broken sentences and tripping of plot holes so big an elephant could get lost in them. They read the stories we finish. The ones we have painstakingly picked through are the stories we present to the world. We are the makeup artists for our creations. I wonder sometimes how people would react to a before and after picture of a story.

I sometimes see the same looks in the eyes of authors when looking at other creative arts. They appreciate the beauty of the work. They love the details in a piece. They are able to capture and share the soul of a work with a language that is constantly in flux through their own words. But they inevitably say, "I could never draw that."

Drawing and language are formulas. They all start with a basic fundamental structure and then build up from there. It takes years to master the English language. And that's just learning the conversational aspect of it. We don't realize that because most of us learn it at such a young age through immersion. When we run into someone learning the English language later in life we don't tell them to stop. We encourage them and practice with them. Drawing is the same concept. It's a language some people learn early and some people learn later. Just because you're starting later doesn't mean it's too late to try.

So why should you start drawing:

• Drawing helps you develop the way you conceptualize the world around you.

Think about the way you see things. Look at something around you like a tree. Stop focusing on the leaves for a moment and notice the basic shapes that make up the tree. Try looking around you at the shapes that make up everyday items. After about a week reflect on the way you look at the world.

• Drawing helps you visualize the whole scene.

Go back and pick up a story you wrote. How are the characters interact with their surroundings. Do they interact with the entire room? How do they fit into the room. Draw out the scene and rewrite the paragraph. You'll notice you pay more attention to the way the scene fits together when you have a reference for the layout of the area.

• Drawing helps you understand motion and how things work.

In order to draw realistically you need to have an understand of the muscle structure and some basic physics concepts like gravity, etc. By practicing everyday you learn to interpret the forces that act upon everyday items in a visual manner. This knowledge will directly translate into your writing.

• Drawing helps you communicate with illustrators.

I worked for over a decade in graphic design and I can tell you the single most frustrating part of the job was dealing with people who didn't understand artistic concepts like placement, color theory or negative space. When you begin to draw you become visually aware of the placement and hues of the world around you and how they affect your work. Once you understand these concepts you'll find talking to the artist illustration your cover much more enjoyable for both of you.

Just like writing, remember that drawing is an exercise in patience. You won't get it perfect the first time. That's not a bad thing. Just consider it your first draft.

What I learned from NaNoWriMo.

This is what a month of writing every day looks like. It's not at all what I expected. I assumed the lines would be nice and even with a few jumps here and there. I was most definitely not expecting the big dips. There really wasn't much to explain them. I wasn't sick. I didn't have an travel. Those big dips were just life doing it's thing and getting in the way.

I learned that Mondays are bad. But I knew they would be strained. Coming off the weekend takes a toll. There are tons of extracurriculars on Mondays. It's one of those things that can't be helped. Life is going to push you around some.

You see that big spike there? That was Night of Writing dangerously for my area. Those spikes at the end, they were pushing to get done because of all the posts about finishing. Community was the one thing I valued the most in this undertaking. It wasn't the most surprising part. But it was so intensely inspirational since so often writing is a solitary path.

So after everything I'm left with this mass of words.  It's a complete mess. I have entire paragraphs that say the same thing in every sentence. There are dozens of sentences that start the same way. It's not a very pretty novel yet, but it's mine. I'm proud of it. I'm better for having written it.

Sure, there are going to be people out there that bemoan NaNo. They'll say it's clogging the works with poorly written material. They forget that everything starts somewhere. And if one person out of over 300,000 becomes a better writer for it, the challenge was a success. You don't just win NaNo by getting 50,000 words. You win by pushing yourself to get past all those nagging voices and put your own voice out there in that chorus.

I'm unbelievably excited for NaNoWriMo 2014. I hope we make it to 500,000 writers next year. In the mean time I'm going to be pushing myself and I hope you will too.